Coming into Wednesday, Lake (14-11-2, 4-4-1) had not beaten US (17-9-3, 3-3-1) in the teams' last 10 games, with the Cougars' last win in the series coming Jan. 15, 2010 in Sylvania. The Cougars had not taken out US at Mentor since Dec. 16, 2009.

So much for all of that.

"This shows," Okicki said, "that we can play with any team."

Amid a scramble in front of the crease early in the extra session, Conway was able to get his stick down at the left bar and punch in a wrister to set off a wild celebration along the back boards.

"Joey Duffy threw it up in front, and I was just hoping it would come to me," Conway said. "And I just put it in the net.

"This is our first overtime win in a long time, and it really put us in a spot for the playoffs and for the Baron Cup."

Tied at 1 late in the second period, Lake generated a goal on the power play -- a welcome sight for Okicki and company considering that unit has been hovering around 8 percent success this winter.

Grant Macmullan delivered a beautiful breakout pass from his defensive zone right on the tape of sophomore Alex Piazza.

Piazza took care of the rest with a low wrister from the right side to give the Cougars a 2-1 advantage heading into intermission.

US, coming off an undefeated run through the Titan Invitational over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend in Sylvania, found an equalizer early in the third. Sam Strang threw a wrister on net, and Jack Linderman cashed in on a long rebound at the 2:41 mark to tie it at 2.

Preppers coach Bill Beard was hoping his team's high energy level in Sylvania would carry over, but Wednesday it did not.

"In this league this year, there is a very fine line between victory and defeat," Beard said. "Lake had just a little more effort than we did tonight."

A little more something -- a 3-1 outing at the Titan Invitational and Wednesday's big league victory -- that Okicki would love to see turn into a head of steam with the Baron Cup and Kent District on the horizon.

"Toledo was a big tournament for us," Okicki said. "We really turned the corner. We started really working hard, and then we came out today and did the same thing.